Facebook gives users dozens of new gender options

American customers of the world's most widely-used social networking site now have some new options for defining themselves digitally: As of Thursday, Facebook users in the United States can chose to identify as someone other than male or female.

The Associated Press was first to report on Thursday that Facebook's 159
million monthly users in the US now have the option of selecting
a gender from a list of roughly 50 options.

Before then, Facebook users were only allowed to identify as male
or female. Effective Thursday, however, account holders have the
option of choosing a gender more align to their actual identity.

The new options include the traditional “male” and “female”
choices, as well as others that run the gamut from “cisgender”
and “transgender” to an array of others.

A post made by the Silicon Valley company's official “Diversity”
page confirmed the news early Thursday.

“When you come to Facebook to connect with the people, causes
and organizations you care about, we want you to feel comfortable
being your true, authentic self,” the post begins. “An
important part of this is the expression of gender, especially
when it extends beyond the definitions of just /male' or
'female.'”

“So today, we’re proud to offer a new custom gender option to
help you better express your own identity on Facebook,” the
post reads.

Brielle Harrison, a Facebook engineer and self-identified
transwoman, told the AP that the changes could be colossal for
users previously disenfranchised from the site's limited gender
options.

"There's going to be a lot of people for whom this is going
to mean nothing, but for the few it does impact, it means the
world," she told the AP.

"All too often transgender people like myself and other
gender nonconforming people are given this binary option, do you
want to be male or female? What is your gender? And it's kind of
disheartening because none of those let us tell others who we
really are," she said. "This really changes that, and
for the first time I get to go to the site and specify to all the
people I know what my gender is."

Facebook isn't forcing users of the function to out themselves
online, however. When account holders log-on to their profile and
edit their gender, it also gives them the option of deciding
whether or not to make that information public — as well as an
additional option of picking a preferred gender pronoun, be it
“his,” “her” or “their.”

“We recognize that some people face challenges sharing their
true gender identity with others, and this setting gives people
the ability to express themselves in an authentic way,”
Facebook publicist Will Hodges wrote in an email to TechCrunch on Thursday.

“While to many this change may not mean much, for those it
affects it means a great deal,” Hodges said. “We see
this as one more way we can make Facebook a place where people
can express their authentic identity.”

The change also gives Facebook an edge over competing social
media site Google Plus, which currently allows users to align as
either “male,” “female” or “other.”